Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Welcome to this week's episode of Dugout Dish podcast. As usual, I'm joined by my wonderful co host, Keith Glasser. Keith, how are you? Great.
[00:00:19] Speaker A: How are you?
[00:00:21] Speaker B: Good, good.
Excited to cover a couple topics this week. So two topics. One, we're going to talk about the role of the parent in the recruiting process.
And then topic number two, which is near and dear to my heart, is the importance of playing hard and understanding how the way you interact with your teammates and coaches and how you act on the field plays a really important role of how you're evaluated.
So let's kick it off with the role of the parent here. I know this is a, it's an interesting topic and it can be a delicate one, but I think it is important to, to touch on, you know, because parents are obviously a very big part of this process in many ways, but in some ways they can be, you know, they can actually be detrimental. And, you know, we want to be able to shed some light on how that all works. So I'll kick it over you to get us started.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: Role of a parent in the recruiting process.
Loaded topic.
You know, I think there's a lot that goes into this one. You know, obviously from being a parent, you know, you want what's best for your son or daughter. For anyone who's listening out there who might not be a baseball person, but you need to be a parent first in this process. You need to be informed on what's going on in this process from a recruiting rules standpoint to what the school is like, what the coaches are like. You are going to know what makes your son or daughter tick, right? Like, you're going to have an idea of, you know, where they're probably going to fit in pretty well where they might not fit in, you know, but that's, you know, your role is to be a guide for your son or daughter in this process. I think one of the things where, you know, it gets a little out of control is when you start, you know, kind of feeling as though you're going through this process and being recruited yourself. You know, that's where, you know, I, I've never written a lineup in my life that had the parents name in the three hole or, or, or pitching. Like you're not playing at the school, you are not going to be taking classes there like your son or daughter is. So let's, let's make sure that we're an aid and a parent in this process for your children so that they can find the, the best fit for them. That's going to offer them the best experience from a, an academic and an athletic standpoint at the school in which they're going to, you know, you are watched and judged, for lack of a better term, more times than you think you are in the recruiting process. You know, there, there's something to be said about a family that comes in and, you know, when they sit in front of you and, you know, mom and dad are certainly going to have questions and you should have questions, but they shouldn't be the only questions that are dominating the, the visit when you're on campus, you know, your son should be the one that has a lot of questions that, you know, he's looking for answers for. Mom and dad are certainly going to have questions like you should, because you're looking to make, you know, the best decision as well. So, you know, it's kind of striking that balance of, like, you know, being able to be a parent and be a guide for your, your children through this process so that, you know, when they have questions and, you know, they're not, you know, there's so much going on, they're not going to be able to remember, you know, everything either. So, you know, being able to kind of take in everything that's going on and, and be able to recall and, and have conversations with your, your son about what's going on in this recruiting process is going to be vital, you know, for you to be able to navigate this process with your, your son, you know, so you want to be a parent first and be informed and have good questions and, and retain the information so that, you know, when it comes down to make decisions like you have everything in front of you with your son and you can kind of make your decision, you know, from there.
[00:04:23] Speaker B: Yeah, it's such a, it's such a delicate topic because I'm certainly not here to tell people how to parent by any stretch of the imagination. But I think, I think it's important for parents to understand how their actions are viewed and can be viewed from a coach's perspective and how they can have a positive impact on their players, on their son's experience here. And to your point, like, be there to support them, be there to be a guide, be a big fan for them, help them get to where they're going to go, do whatever you can to put them in a situation to be successful. But at the end of the day, the kid is the one who's going through this process. The kid is the one who's going to get recruited. And I Hear, you know, I hear this often, I hear the word we. We, like we aren't interested in that school or you know, we think that we're better than that particular place or we think we fit at a different level. It always strikes me as well, what about the kid? Like, what does the kid think? He's the one who is really driving this process. And I think it's important to separate the two, that obviously you're doing it as a family. But the, the player needs to sit at the front of the recruiting process. They need to take ownership of this process and be there to support them, be there to hold them accountable, keep them in line with what they need to be doing to put themselves in a situation to be recruitable. But don't send the emails, don't take their phone and send text messages to coaches. Like, they need to own this. They need to be the, the, at the forefront of this because at the end of the day that kid is going to, at some point going to be moving on to college and they need to be able to do stuff on their own because they want it. And if you're a 16 year old kid or you're a parent of a 16 year old kid and you can't find the time, that kid can't find the time to sit down and get emails out to coaches or send his summer schedule out or, or call a coach or text message a coach when he's supposed to text message a coach.
The conversation probably needs to start with like, are you really, do you really want to do this? Like, there shouldn't be a huge motivating factor for the kid to do that. And I'm not a big fan of when the parents step in and start doing it for them. Right? They need to learn that they have to do this stuff, that they have to take ownership of this because when they get to college it's going to be a real culture shock when nobody's holding their hand to go do stuff and you're either going to do it or you don't. And the guys who don't do it, they find themselves, you know, not playing baseball as long as they would like. So it's probably where it starts for me is make sure that the player is the star.
The other thing that always, that always strikes me when I go watch games, and I'll try to say this as delicately as I can, but how parents act at these games is really striking to me. And my advice to a parent would be root your son on, root your team on, stay Away from the negative stuff. Don't yell at umpires. Don't get so emotionally invested that you're gonna go and do something or say something that's going to impact your kid. Because at the end of the day, coaches can figure out whose parent is who pretty easily. Either because we've met or you get a pretty good idea of whose parent is who in the stands. And, you know, it's not an absolute, but how a parent acts oftentimes can be a reflection of what that player is going to be like. And, you know, I see and hear some things at these games that are, you know, it's. It's a little shocking, you know, but my advice to parents would be, you know, be. Be a fan when you're at the game. You know, root for your son.
But, you know, try to keep it. Keep it positive in a sense. Right? Like, it just. It kills me when I see, you know, parents screaming at umpires that are, you know, making $50 to umpire that game. Like, nobody deserves that. And, you know, I just don't think it's beneficial for everybody, anybody. And, you know, it can only leave a bad taste in a coach's mouth if, If I happen to be there watching your son. And I know that you're the one who's. Who's acting like that. Like, it just leaves a bad taste in a coach's mouth. And you don't want to do anything that would be detrimental to your son's, you know, potential to. To play at the next level. And, you know, I'm not sure if enough people say that, you know, see some. Some Twitter warriors who, you know, we'll tweet about it and everything, but, you know, we'll. I'll put it out there right now, like, be aware of what you say and how you act, because it can reflect on. On your son. And I know that if I was a parent, which I hope to be someday, that I know I'll have the, you know, I'll be in a situation where I'm going to hold myself accountable to that same standard, but just be cognizant of what you're saying and how you're acting, because it. It oftentimes goes. Does not go unnoticed.
[00:09:31] Speaker A: No, it's never going to go unnoticed.
[00:09:32] Speaker B: You know, I would.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: To pull the thread quickly on what you said before you got into that, and I'll get into that here in a second. You know, it's the parents sending the emails in the text messages, like, one. The coaches know we can decipher Pretty quickly, who sent it? Is it a 54 year old professional or a 415 year old kid? Like I, I can tell pretty quickly. The other is like when parents email you and tell you, hey, like, you know, so and so Joey is really busy with school. He can't get emails out. Like that's actually more detrimental to hear that because then it's like, all right, well like when he comes to school, like he's going to be on his own, he's gonna have to go, he's gonna eat on his own, he's gonna have to go to class, he's gonna have to live. There's a lot of things he's gonna have to do on his own.
When's he gonna have time to, to. Is he gonna be able to handle this? You know, and, and it starts to raise questions, more questions than you think by, you know, and I think sometimes people will send the name and be like, well, you know, we have baseball lessons and you know, whatever, jazz flute and you know, SAT studying and whatever it is. And it's like, you know, like everything is so structured and it's like, well, when that structure is gone, like now what like it, like I don't like, it's not actually as beneficial as you think it is in saying those things. So, you know, just keep that in mind, you know. But the other is just as, you know, when you're at games, like there's more red flags than then you can set up by the way you act and the things you do at games with coaches now, you know, obviously it's a little bit different, you know, at the college level. Like you're not, you know, I'll be honest with you. Every kid who sat in my office with their family, like, I would tell them, like, you know, if you come to rpi, like you, you will not talk to me about anything other than the academics or the health and well being of your son. You know, we're not getting into playing time. We're not going to get into like none of that stuff that does not happen in college baseball. Like it just not gonna happen because you're like, you get to go recruit your own players and you're gonna have those conversations with your kids and they're gonna know where they stand throughout the course of the year, you know, and this is, this is big boy stuff. Like we, we've talked about this before. You get paid to win games. You know, I said it earlier on this podcast, like I've never written a parent's name in on A lineup you're not helping me win. So whatever you think or do or say, like, doesn't matter, you know, I, I'm the one who, you know, if I get, if I lose my job, like, my family is in a hard spot. So if you think I'm not trying to make the best decision and put the best guys out there, like, you're. You're 100% wrong. You know, So I think one of the things that kind of gets lost in this is just. Is just really being humble in what, you know, in regards to the grand things, the grand scheme of things in baseball. You know, I, I think that it gets lost on a lot of people that, you know, as a professor, like, we were coaches for. It was our career. Like, I was, I was 16 years in college baseball coaching. Like, that's a long time to coach college baseball. And when you do that. And, you know, we have these guys on the podcast. We've, We've had them already. We have Moore's guys lined up. Like, these are dudes who eat, sleep, live, breathe baseball 24 7, 365. Like, this isn't the casual, like, hey, I watched the Yankees last night. Let me tell you why I think Aaron Boone should have hit and run. Like, no, these are dudes who have a way, a very high understanding and intellect when it comes to this game. There's so much nuance in it. And these are guys who have spent years becoming pretty good at what they do coaching college baseball or just baseball in general, you know, so it's. It always kind of boggles my mind when you have people that, you know, the, the. The level, you know, and you don't have to play at a high level to coach, right? But, like, you haven't played or coached any sport, any baseball in a very long time, right? Like, let's say you finished playing in high school, and then the next time you started doing anything with baseball was when your son was in Little League. Like, the game has changed quite a bit. It's not the same, you know, and your level of understanding when you get to whatever is going to be less than that of a lot of college coaches, you know, so I've always made the analogy, you know, like, you don't call the, the, the plumber to come into your house and then start questioning the guy when you know, hey, are you using the right wrench? You know, are you really supposed to do that? Like, well, then why'd you pay the guy? If you know the answer, then you should, you should be out there, you know, so I, I've, there, there's a certain level of professionalism when it comes to, you know, these guys are coaches and this is their career. Like, are there some bad ones out there? Yeah, there's bad accountants out there. There's bad plumbers. Like, sure there are, there's always going to be. That's, that's, that's true in any walk of life. But at the end of the day, like these guys are coaches who are, we're actually working with kids and trying to put the, the best team out there to give themselves a chance to win and you know, have the understanding that, that like this is their job, this is what they choose to do. They're not, you know, your son isn't playing because he doesn't, the coach doesn't like him. That's one of the other ones that used to, always, used to always bother me when you hear that, well, the coach doesn't like him. Like, you know, Jimmy, if you can help me win, whether I like you or not is irrelevant to whether I'm going to put your name in the lineup. Like, I've never heard a coach be like, you know, we probably could have another one, won another like five, six games if I had him in the lineup, but I just don't like them. So I didn't play them. So we just, we just took the losses in all those games. Like, no, that's literally never happened.
There's reasons why, generally speaking, your son is going to know why those, why, those reasons are to why he's not playing. You know, and it's, I've said this for years, you could always, you can go through an entire team and like the kids know, kids always know and you know, it's generally the parents that end up, you know, on the, you know, a little bit behind the eight ball when it comes to that stuff. So, you know, I think, and this isn't an indictment on, on everybody I've had a, I was blessed to have a very, very positive experience with the vast majority of, you know, if not all of the parents of kids I coach. And I think it, you know, it became a little bit more, you know, different as, as I got older and as I became a head coach and as I matured and as I became a father. You know, you have, you do end up having a little bit of a different relationship with, with some, with parents as you go. Right, right. Like, you know, 24 year old coach Glasser is not the same as 37 year old coach Glasser. So there's, you know, there, there, there's some things there that, that change along the way. So, you know, I, I've had a. I, I've, like I said, I've been blessed to have a lot of positive experience with parents. It's just I've, I've seen things along the way where I'm like, man, that's a red flag for me. Like, I, I don't know if I would really want to go down that road. And, and again, not that you're really dealing with it, but you're dealing with the fallout with, with the young man who's going to be on your team. And, you know, you don't know if, if the juice is going to be worth the squeeze at that point in time.
[00:16:51] Speaker B: Man, it's, it's such a loaded topic and try not to make it come off as, like, super negative. But it's hard to, it's hard to shed light on this without touching on kind of the negative pieces of it. But, you know, at the end of the day, the player needs to play, the player needs to execute, and the parent should prepare them to execute to the best of their ability and then, and then not make excuses when things don't go their way. Right. Don't blame the umpire. You know, don't give the kid an out because things didn't go well on a given day. Like, it's all part of development. It's all part of them being able to continue to get better. And, you know, I think there is a correlation there with parents who are very supportive, but let their kids fail and don't let them build up those excuses for when things don't go their way. Those kids tend to figure it out really quick and they tend to deal with some adversity, which is inevitable, especially when you get to the college level. Like, it's just, it's not going to go your way all the time. Like, if you're a freshman, there's a really good chance you're not going to play much your first year. Like, it's just how competitive college baseball is. And if your son has already been able and is equipped to deal with some of those failures because you've given them an opportunity to do it and you've coached them through those moments so that they can fail better, so that they can get better, they'll be a lot better suited for what's in store for them when they get to the college level. And, you know, the parents that tend to find reasons why things didn't go well and kind of build in those excuses that it was the umpire's fault or this shortstop sucks and if he'd made that play, then this would have. Yeah, you can always play that game. But building in those excuses isn't really helping anybody. You know, there's no high school kid, there's no college kid that is trying to make errors. There's no umpire that is trying to make bad calls. And it's. Yeah. Is it frustrating in the moment if you're a parent and your kid, you know, makes a piss to get out of the inning and somebody makes an error? Yeah, I'm sure it sucks. I'm sure it sucks to watch that. But, you know, that's somebody else's kid too. And I've just heard some of that stuff come out of stands. Like it's shocking some of the things that, that I've heard and it's tough to listen to sometimes because you know, those kids are trying, like those kids are trying to be as good as they can be. Like none of those kids show up and want to, you know, want to let their teammates down. And you know, if you're a parent, I think the biggest thing is just support the heck out of your kid and be realistic about where they fit. Right. Gather information, get as informed as you possibly can so you can help them the best that they can. But, you know, they need to be the ones that execute. They need to take ownership of the process and they need to be accountable for what they do and what they don't do. And you know, if you're there to provide information, if you're there to have those honest conversations with them, if you're there to help them find the right fit, then you're probably doing everything you can possibly do in the recruiting process to give them, you know, the best opportunity to continue to play at the collegiate level. And anything short of that, you may not be, you know, you may not be helping as much as you'd like.
You know, whether, whether you kind of realize it or not, which is, you know, once again, I'm not a parent. It's tough to say, but I can only speak from, from what I've seen and you know, the 10 years, the coaching and the four years of playing and leaning on your experience and our network of coaches, it's, you know, seems to be a common thing that the parents role in this process does impact things and you want to make sure that that impact is as positive as can be and you don't negatively impact your son. Or daughter as they go through this. Not just in baseball, but if your child is looking to play collegiate sports at any level, it's important, I think, to empower them and put them in a situation where they're kind of the star of the show. And, you know, they're the ones who are. Who are going through the process with a really strong support system behind them.
[00:21:04] Speaker A: Yeah. In short, don't hijack the process.
Right. Like, you know, I think that's the one thing that, you know, probably the overarching theme of what we're trying to drive out here is it's, you know, it's not necessarily about the parents. When we get into the recruiting process, like, yes, it's a. It's. It's to catch 22. Because, you know, by and large, the parents are, you know, in most situations, like, the parents can be the ones that are footing the bill. So, you know, it kind of is a little bit about them, but, you know, really what you're trying to do is put your son or daughter in the. Help them get into the right spot for them, academically, athletically, emotionally. You know, everything it is that they need. You know, you're on a visit and you're sitting in front of a coach. Like, you know, some of your questions should be more geared towards, you know, what's the support system that we have for, you know, student athletes here? You know, what type of, you know, academic support is there? Do you have study hall? You know, things like that? Like, those are questions, you know, obviously, and on top of the. The. The elephant in the room is always going to be the financial end of things, you know, but those are things that I. You know, those families would sit in front of me, and I'd get those questions from mom and dad, and it's like, all right, like, family's really invested in. In the right things for their song. And, you know, those. Like, those. Generally, the ones like those leaving, you're like, all right, like, we got a pretty good shot there. Like, you know, we have a lot of the. We have a lot of academic support. We have all the stuff. Like, we nailed all the questions with mom. Like, we're gonna. We should be pretty good, you know, but like you said earlier, you have people come in. It's like, well, we don't think this, and we don't like that. And it's like, well, who's we? You and the mouse in your pocket. Like, you're not. You guys aren't coming to play for me. Like, your son is like, Let me hear what he has to say. You know, so sometimes it can kind of get hijacked from that standpoint. And you know, you walk out of there and it's kind of like, you know, man, I don't. Kid didn't say a word. Like, he didn't ask any questions. Like, he really didn't, you know, you know, and you don't get a feel for it. And you know, this kind of circles back to some of the other stuff we've talked about on previous podcasts where it's like, you know, you sit in my office or you come to an on campus camp or I see you at a, at a, you know, private camp, whatever. Like, I'm trying to get a feel for whether or not I think that we're going to be a good fit from a, a coaching and, and coach player standpoint, you know, so there's, there's a lot more that goes into it there, you know, and when it's, you know, again, I'll use hijacked, but like, when, when it becomes a little bit more about mom and dad and less about the kid, like, you know, those tend to, you know, fizzle out a little bit more because it's, I'm not recruiting you, I'm recruiting your son. So, you know, let me kind of get an idea of where I think he's going to fit into our program.
And you know, if he will, and, and if he will, is it going to be a good fit? You know, so. Because sometimes you can figure out like, yeah, this is going to be a good fit for me or the kid. So, you know, it's, it's more or less like, be informed, have the right questions to ask, don't kind of, you know, take over the process, but be a parent in the process. And I think when, when you get that, you know, you can kind of, it's hard to do, you know, but if you can kind of, if you have the information in front of you and you can kind of work through it with each other, you're, you're gonna find yourself in a far better place than if it's, you know, you just saying, like, this is where we're gonna go and this is what we want and this is what is going to happen. Because very, very rarely is that going to happen. You know, you're gonna probably find a lot of roadblock, roadblocks along that line. You're going to want to kind of open up as many doors as you can and, and be open to things and be humble. And understand that you don't know everything that's going on in this process and what's, what is expected of you and, and how to take ownership and do those things. You know, it's, it's a, it's a pretty, pretty nuanced and intense process to go through from a recruiting standpoint, start to finish, you know, and even when you commit, you're not finished, there's more that goes into it there. So, you know, there's, there's plenty of things that you do not know along this path. And, you know, that's kind of where, you know, these podcasts and things like that, we do come into play. But, you know, the reality is you just kind of humble yourself and say, like, hey, I don't know everything I need to know about this and I'm going to, you know, do my best to help my son or daughter find the right place to go to and find the right fit for them so that they're going to be able to thrive academically and athletically at whatever college they decide to go to.
[00:25:32] Speaker B: I totally agree. And I think with that, I think we can probably move on to topic two of the conversation. And you know, if, if you've listened to a few of the coaching interviews that we've had and you know, I think, I mean, shoot, I think it's such an important thing that we probably touch on it in some way, shape or form in almost every podcast. But everybody focuses on the talent evaluation and what a player does on the field from a production standpoint and how fast they run and how hard they throw and what kind of bat speed they have and, you know, can they really defend. But I think that the thing that doesn't get talked about enough is what, what things coaches are looking for. Besides that kind of the first place to start is playing hard. And if you don't run out a ground ball once every, you know, 30 or 40 times that, you know, you hit a ground ball to the infielder and you don't run 100%, like, you know, not going to be super concerned about that. But, you know, if I'm a coach and I come watch you play and you're a pretty talented player and you have an over four day in every single time you put the ball in play, you didn't think it was appropriate to run hard, probably going to be an issue. You know, if you don't have some energy getting on and off the field, it's probably going to be an issue. You know, there's a, you know, there's a, a level of commitment that college coaches require, and one of those things is the ability to play hard. And, you know, Major League baseball is not high school or college baseball. It's not the same thing. You know, when, you know, when Aaron Judge hits a ground ball to shortstop in the big leagues, he doesn't need to run his butt off every single time because he's going to do that a million times. And also it's an out. 999 times out of a thousand.
You know, it's a little bit of a different, It's a, it's a, it's really just a different game. But if you're a high school kid, one, you're trying to impress a college coach. So playing hard is one really good way to get on somebody's radar. Like, you stick out if you're the guy flying around the field. You know, you stick out if you're the guy who's diving after balls or taking an extra base or going first to third or, you know, whatever it might be. But the other piece of it too, if you want to, if you want to focus more on the gameplay stuff, most high school baseball, the defense is not good, you know, and even really good high school players aren't good defenders.
When you're talking about, you know, percentages, right? Like, if a high school team feels 930, I'd be shocked. So if you think about it that way, running down the first baseline hard on a ball, you hit the shortstop or second base, it could be the reason that you win a game.
You know, you might extend an inning or you might lead off an inning by getting on because you decided to run hard and, you know, the second baseman bobbled the ball and instead of you being out by a half step, you're safe.
So if, if playing, if, if coaches watching you isn't enough reason to play hard, you should at least be able to look into the dugout and look at your teammates and go, I owe it to them to play hard, you know, to get on and off the field with some energy. And I just, I see too many high school kids not play hard. I don't know if it's, they're not being held to a certain standard in the dugout or if they watch, you know, too much big league baseball and they, they, they presume a lower level of effort means that guys don't care, don't try, which isn't the case. Like, those guys are so good at what they do, they make it look effortless. It's not that they're not trying.
And, you know, for me, the play hard thing was always really important. And part of it was because, you know, one of. One of my mentors and a guy that I had a chance to coach with at William Mary, like, it was a key component of what we did, and it was why it was what made us good while we were there is our guys played hard. And it was a standard that we had. And that was one of the first questions that we always talked about when recruiting a guy is, does he play hard? Like, does he have the energy and the motor where that kid's gonna be able to show up, not just on game days, but he's going to be able to practice hard, you know, and that's a really key component of the evaluation, in my opinion. If I show up to watch you play, you're probably in the realm of good enough to play in the program that I'm at, you know, for.
Don't give me a reason to not like you because you got pissed off that you hit a ground ball to the shortstop and you didn't want to run it out. Right. You know, Jimmy Jackson mentioned the other day, if it happens every once in a while, okay, like, we can coach that. But if I come and watch you play a couple times and every time I walk away, my thought is like, man, I just don't know how much this kid cares. Well, then that. That's a problem.
And for high school kids, like, honestly, there's no excuse to not play hard. You got too much at stake. You owe it to yourself, you owe it to your teammates, you owe it to your coaches. And, you know, don't put yourself in a position where you get crossed off because you didn't feel like playing hard on a given day. You know, that would be like, one of my biggest pieces of advice to any high school kid is just don't give anybody the reason to not like you because you didn't want to play with energy one day.
[00:31:02] Speaker A: Yeah. The play hard piece is, is always a. A good one to talk about because it's the motor that you play with and the, the energy and the intent that you bring to the field every day is something that does not ever go unnoticed by coaches.
Does that mean you have to be super rah rah and screaming, yelling and all that stuff? No. You know, but there's. There's a certain way, you know, when you're getting on and off the field with a little bit of energy and you are running out, you Know, ground balls to short to, given that hard 90 to first base. You know, it's things like that that, you know, show that there's a level of intent and a level of care in what it is that you are doing. And if you have that level of intent and that level of care and in those things like that generally is going to carry over into, to, you know, your preparation at pr, like at practice, in lifts, in the classroom, with homework, things like that. Like, generally speaking, like, if you can, you know, and I, I think Chris talked about this as well. Like, it kind of starts with competing. Like if you can't, if you can't get fired up to compete, like, I, I, I, then like, you probably shouldn't be playing any, any level of college athletics at any sport because like, what's the point of doing all of it if you don't actually get fired up to compete and then actually give all of your effort for your teammates in whatever it is that you are doing, Running down the first baseline, getting on and off the field, you know, being the defensive replacement in the ninth inning because you, you play a really good center field and you know, where we need you to track down balls, late games, defensively, whatever it is, you know, I, I, I just don't understand sometimes, like, why, like, what's the point of doing it? And, and, and I used to say this to my guys all the time. Like, look, if you don't want to be here, like, that's fine. Like, we'll find guys who want to be here. And generally, like, it's not the fact that they don't want to be there. It's, you know, they're getting worn out of school. There's, you know, they have four tests this week and papers due next week. And you know, there's a lot going on and I think sometime, you know, they get caught up in, in those types of things which then starts taking away from the, the energy and the motor that they have, you know, for games and what's going on, you know. So to your point, like, if it happens once or twice, like, it's not going to be a huge deal. But, you know, if I show up to watch you play and I see you play two, three times and every time I walk away and I'm like, I've yet to see him run hard down the first baseline. Like, I watch him walk on and off the field, like it's, I'm probably gonna go in a different direction because it, to me, it's like, maybe not that you don't care. But, like, the motor and the energy that I'm looking for to bring into my program isn't there. You know, I. I'm looking for guys to be, you know, Ferris used to say this all the time. You know, be a. Be a fountain, not a drain. You know, you're looking for guys that, that have a lot of energy, that are. That are looking to be there, that are happy to be there, that want to, you know, get better and push other people. You know, if that motor's not there and you're not interested in, you know, trying to push other people to get better yourself, and, you know, it's going to be, you know, that stuff kind of shines through. And it's just that simple question of, you know, does he play hard? Because, you know, like, I'm sure with Murph would tell you, like, it bleeds into other things. You know, it's not just about running down the first baseline. It's not just about getting on and off the field. It's not, you know, it bleeds into other things. Like they're going to be. They're going to work hard in the weight room because they care. They work hard in the classroom because they care. You know, so there's, There's a lot more that goes into it. Just those simple things, you know, can really be, you know, kind of small tells for coaches as to what they're looking for and what this could potentially be. So, you know, it just kind of. Is that. That small tell of like, hey, if he doesn't play hard, that's a little bit of a question mark there, you know, and then you dig a little bit deeper. But, you know, you play hard, chances are you're have a lot more opportunities and a lot more doors will stay open the harder you play.
[00:35:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think the compete thing is huge. You know, guys who compete play hard, and you need to be able to compete. You need to be. Needs to be more important than yourself.
And I mean, digress for a second. I want to touch on another piece, but I think the travel ball situation sometimes can. Can take away from the team aspect of it.
[00:35:45] Speaker A: Right.
[00:35:45] Speaker B: And the idea that I'm trying to get recruited and, you know, my results matter and they do, but for a high school player who's going through this, I think it's worth thinking about. You'd be shocked at how many times you get really good results when you're worried about winning. And that's your main focus for what you're doing. And you Know, you, you. You'll end up with good results. From an individual perspective, if you're worried about trying to do what you can to help a team win, whether it's, you know, getting down the baseline or getting a bunt down or being in the right spot on defense and not worrying so much about the individual accolades, but worrying about, you know, what can I do to help my team win. And you'll be shocked at how many times things fall into place when. When you do that.
[00:36:29] Speaker A: The.
[00:36:29] Speaker B: The other part of the any, it dovetails off of the. The play hard piece. But how you fail as a player says a lot about you in terms of your character. And this game has so much failure in it. And Eric touched on it in. In. I think it was episode three, touched on it quite a bit, that if I'm there to watch a game to. To the point I made earlier, if I'm there to watch a game and I'm there to watch you play, I'm probably there because you're pretty good. If you fail really well, I think it says a lot about a person because you're going to fail a ton in this game and you're not always going to have a really good game, you know, but if, if you can strike out looking and handle it appropriately and then run onto the field and go play good defense and then come back later in the game and put together a really good at bat. Like, coaches notice that stuff. They notice that, hey, something didn't go right for this kid and he was still able to put a good foot forward, right? The umpire made a bad call. He didn't act like a baby. He didn't show up the umpire. He didn't go into the corner and the dog got him. Pout. He handled it appropriately. He went in, refocused, went out and played defense. And the kid came up in the sixth inning and he puts a good swing on the ball. You know, it's the same thing if you're a pitcher. You know, umpire blows a call. How do you react?
Every coach that we talk to, they will mention body language at some point in the conversation about a kid.
Hey, I think, you know, I really liked the way he handled himself. He got in a tight spot in the second inning and he walked away. You know, he was able to get out of the jam and then he cruised after that. But he handled it really well versus a kid who, you know, might get a little bit upset about what's going on and loses composure and doesn't have the ability to Compartmentalize and kind of get back to the task at hand. You know, that's a learned behavior, right? And Tish talked about that. Like, you can coach guys up on that, but the earlier, you understand as a player that one, you're going to fail in this game and that's okay, right? You need to move on. You need to worry about, what can I do next to help my team win, right? If you strike out, go get your glove, go play defense, come back in, make sure you're a good teammate. Take a good at bat next time you're up. If you're a pitcher, you get a bad call, dude hits a double off of you, right? That already happened. You can't do anything about it. Let's focus on the task at hand.
And that leads me to just a quick story. I went and watched a guy throw the other day, and he didn't have his best day, but I left the field feeling better about that kid because of how he competed when he didn't have his good stuff, when kids were making errors behind him and the umpire was bad, he never wavered. There was no bad body language. He just kept at it and he competed and he ended up keeping his team in the game. And yeah, it wasn't the outcome he was looking for, but I learned a lot about that kid. So now when a coach calls, I can say, hey, I've seen this kid fail. He's good when he's right, but he's pretty darn good when he isn't right. Because I've watched this kid compete. He's going to attack the strike zone. He's going to find a way to. To get some guys out. He's going to be a good teammate. He's not going to, you know, he's not going to go to shit when things don't go his way. And coaches look for that. Because it's going to happen to you in college. You're going to get. You're going to have days where it's really hard. And you're not.
You're not defined by your successes. In most cases, you're defined by how you deal with your failures on a baseball field. Most of the time you're defined by that in life. But not that I'm like a philosopher or anything like that, but, you know, I've. I've learned from way more failures than I have successes. And, you know, I think it's. It's important for a kid to understand how you handle yourself.
Says a lot about you as a competitor. Says A lot about you from a character perspective. And yeah, you're always going to need to improve on that. But if you're 15 or 16 and you're, you're, you're listening to this, understand that that stuff does matter. You can control it. So take accountability for your action. Take accountability for the energy that you show up with and, you know, just compete. Be a guy who wants to compete regardless of what the result might be like. Be focused on the task at hand and, you know, 10 things tend to work out for guys who have that demeanor.
It serves them well in the moment, but it'll serve them well when they get to the next level.
[00:41:11] Speaker A: Yeah, the, the ability to show up every day and, and more or less be the same person is, is hard to do, and it is a learned behavior. And I think that it, it ends up being, it'll bode well for you as you get older, you know. So, like, you know where I'm driving at? This is like, they're. If you're the same guy, whether, you know, you guys boat race another team or you're on the bump and you guys get boat race, but you're the same dude. Like, yeah, people are gonna expect you to be a little, you know, you're gonna be mad at yourself and upset, but people want you to be the same dude. Like, win, lose, good, bad, indifferent. Like, be the same person with that high energy and that high motor, you know, with what's going on, you know, and I, I think that, that, like, it's tough. You know, Eric talked about this too. Like, it's tough to be that guy. If you're just going out on Friday night and you know that you're going to get your, your butt kicked, you know, you're just going to wear it for four or five, six innings so that, you know, you might be able to steal a game that weekend, you know, so there's, there's things like that to go into it. Like, this game is so hard. It is so hard to play.
You know, when you're going to, there's games every year. You can go look at anybody's schedule. You're going to get boat raced by somebody, which in layman in baseball terms, like, you're going to get blown out, it's not going to be close, and you're going to boat race other people. You know, those games happen. The, the best thing about this game is that you, you know, at least at, at some levels, like you're going to turn around and play sometimes in 30 minutes. Other times in, in less than 24 hours. So, you know, you have to be able to clear it pretty quickly when, when you do fail and be able to come back and respond in a way that, that is going to be able to, to be successful and, and go out there and compete at a high level with the energy and the effort that you need to put forth every day to do so. So, you know, I think that that's the one unique thing about baseball is that, you know, it's not kind of like football where you're. You play every once a week. You know, you're going to play three, four, five times a week pending schedules. So, you know, you've got to be able to really be able to mentally work through some of the things that might not be working for you, but also be able to. To, you know, get out there and you're on your. It's Sunday, it's day two of a double, you know, game two of a double header and it's the fifth game of the week and you know, you still have to find a way to stay in your legs and bring the energy and the effort to be able to stick your nose on a ground wall at short with, you know, a runner on second, a tie game in the, in the top of the eighth, and you know, you throw it away, he scores and you might be down one. Like you got to stay in your legs and make that play and get you out of the inning, you know, and being able to do that type of stuff is, is underappreciated. But also, you know, something that I think is, is what makes the players that end up having really good careers, the reason why they have those good careers. You know, if you can show up with that energy and the effort and the, and the compete factor on a daily basis, like, you know, those dudes generally have really good careers at the collegiate level.
[00:44:30] Speaker B: Guys who play hard make their. They, they seem to be luckier, right? Like a kid who runs down the first baseline hard or the kid who's thinking double out of the box. They seem to get a few more doubles than the other guys, right? And it's not a coincidence. And you almost have to think about it long term. Like you kind of got to play the long game that if I play hard enough times in a row that I'm going to play myself to where things become favorable for me, like that one ground ball to the second baseman that you don't decide to run out. There may be no consequence to that. But do that enough times and eventually there's going to be a play where you decided not to run that you could have been a difference maker. And the, the, the opposite of that is absolutely true. Like, you may run down the baseline or go hard out of the box or die for a ball in the infield 99 times and not get any results out of it. But the one time you do could be the, the play that changes the game. You know, if you're a shortstop and there's a guy on second base and you die for a ball in the hole, yeah, you may not make the play, but maybe you stop that guy from scoring, you keep the double play in order, and you end up getting a double play to get out of the inning. Well, if you didn't want to play hard in that moment, that ball gets through the left field, he scores, you just change the outcome of the game without even really knowing it.
And, you know, you want to get to the point as a player where you don't really have an off switch, you just play hard, Right? Like, you just, you just consistently play hard, you consistently compete. It's a learned behavior and players need to hold themselves accountable. But I think, you know, we talked about parents earlier. Like, I think parents can hold kids accountable. And it doesn't mean you have to yell and scream at your kid because he doesn't run down the first baseline hard. Like, no, that doesn't do any good either. But maybe, you know, if they do it enough times, you know, maybe that conversation of, hey, bud, like, you know, when you don't play hard, you know that that trickles down to the rest of your teammates. And you know, be aware that your actions have repercussions and your actions can affect how other people act. And, you know, I think that that stuff matters. And you know, you're going to, you're going to learn it the hard way one way or the other. You're going to learn it the hard way because somebody passes on you because they saw you on a bad day, or you're going to learn it the hard way. And when you get to school and you're not going to play because you haven't learned how to play hard yet, you haven't learned how to practice like a college player. You haven't learned to compete day in and day out. Right. And are you going to, are you going to have some days where they aren't good? And you know, maybe you don't compete at your best level. Yeah. But the more you can consistently stack those really competitive, high energy days together, the Less likely you're going to have those, those lower end days and just seems to work out for guys who do that stuff. They seem to find themselves in the lineup. They seem to be the guy who, when you are beaten up on somebody, they seem to be the guy that gets the at bat or the guy who gets the inning. And then eventually maybe they do well in that opportunity and then being a really good practice player gives them an opportunity in the game and then eventually they might carve out a role for themselves. So it's hard to, I think it's hard sometimes as a player to play the long game and understand that it's, it's not about that one play. It's about continuously being able to show up and put in effort and be invested in something that's bigger than you. And you know, a lot of times those outcomes will, they'll go in your favor by default almost. You know, you, you play hard and things seem to work out for those guys.
[00:48:10] Speaker A: Weird how that works.
[00:48:13] Speaker B: I mean, you see that play the other day.
[00:48:15] Speaker A: I think Abraham said, the harder I work, the luckier I get.
Who said that? Abraham Lincoln.
[00:48:23] Speaker B: Ah, Honest Abe.
Did you see the play from the, the Rays the other day? Guy hit a comebacker. He kind of like, kind of like cue balled it down the, like in that like no man zone between the pitcher and the third baseman, like that full swing like cue ball job and the pitcher comes off the mountain, he's all out of control and the dude's like basically walking down the baseline and he pulls the first baseman off the bag and the guy ends up being out. Those are the things that I watch on Major League Baseball and I wish that the kids never saw that because like that's the perfect example of what not to do. But because he's a big leaguer, it kind of gets overlooked. Like, you know, it was just that one time.
[00:49:09] Speaker A: But I think the other thing too, like you don't understand the speed of the game at that level. Like those dudes are hitting the ball like triple digits on the ground and these dudes are fielding it like they're a step or two out of the box and it's already in somebody's glove. And then all of those guys are 90 plus across the diamond by and large. So like, you know, you're right. 90, 999 times out of a thousand, you're out. You know, it's not to say that they're not running hard, but at the same time, like you just took one step out of the box and the shortstop already has the ball. Like the likelihood of you being out is pretty high, you know, so you give it a couple hard steps, you see that you're gonna, you're out and then, you know, you kick it in the cruise because you do have 162 games and you know, playoffs if your team's good enough that year, you know, so it's a little bit of a long game there. You know, it's not the 20, the 20ish games you play in high school, you know, where you can just kick it into cruise control, not play with a high motor. Like that's no one really wants. No one's going to want to coach that or recruit that.
You're just.
[00:50:15] Speaker B: Once again, it goes back to like it's not the same game. No, not at all.
I had a scout friend when I was, this was a while back, but he was an amateur scout. He worked for one of the professional organization, he had his own region. But when he got done with the draft, he would go and he would do the major league cross checking. So he would go to major league parks and scout. You know, they're looking for, you know, they're looking for guys that they might want to trade for some advanced scouting, looking for tendencies, doing all that kind of stuff. And this is an interesting thing and you're a Yankees fan, so you'll probably eat this up. But one of the things that stuck out to me is that this was like prime Derek Jeter, right? When you know, obviously everybody knows who Derek Jeter is, but what he said about Derek Jeter is that he never ran more than a tenth of a second difference in his home. The first time in all the games that he'd ever watched him is that he was like a four. He was between like a four two and a four three every time he hit a ground ball in the infield. And if you've ever watched that series that they put out, you get why he did that. Because the dude was so damn competitive, like he only knew one way to play. Now am I saying that you have to be Derek Eater? No, but what I am saying is that if one of the best players in the world can find it in him to run close to his best time, no matter what. You're a high school kid who's trying to play at the college level, who's trying to win games at the high school level, it really shouldn't have to be that long of a conversation for you to understand. Like, let's just get down the Baseline hard. Like let's get on and off the field, you know, let's, let's go first to third. Let's, you know, try to stretch a single into a double. Like just, just play with some energy, like, act like you want to be there.
You know, I just, I don't think it's a, I don't think it's a ton to ask and I think it's a really, really simple thing that most high school players can address and it's going to put them in a much more advantageous situation from a recruiting perspective.
And those little things add up. Like we talked about taking the time to send an email. Like it's such a little thing. But it shows that you care, right, that you want to be recruited. Well, if you play hard, it shows that you want to win and that you want to be there. Right? It may not be the reason you get recruited, but don't let it be the reason that you don't get recruited. I think that's really what the whole conversation comes down to with, with body language and in, you know, the play hard piece. Like just, just make sure it's not the reason you don't get recruited.
[00:53:04] Speaker A: Yes.
Simply put, you know, because it can, it can be. Everyone has varying degrees of what they, how, how much they weigh it and value it in the process. But I can promise you that the compete factor, if you've been listening to some of these interviews, is it's one of the first things that everyone says they're looking for dudes who can compete, you know, and then the flip side is like they're looking for people with energy and, and you know, what, how do they play, what do they play? Things like that, you know, so it's something that is, is going to be viewed and, and, and weighed pretty heavily on the vast majority of people's minds when they're going through this process of recruiting you. So, you know, being able to kind of, you know, be squared away, play hard. And you know, as a lot of people say, play hard, play the right way. Like, you know, play it hard, just have a high motor, have fun when you're out there and roll it out, you'll be alright.
[00:54:10] Speaker B: Well, with that, Coach Glasser, I think we could probably wrap things up for today's episode. Before we sign off, I want to remind everybody that if you're watching this on YouTube, what do the kids say? Smash that like button. You know, follow us on the socials, Twitter.
[00:54:27] Speaker A: Smash that like button. That's what the kids.
[00:54:30] Speaker B: Smash that like button.
[00:54:31] Speaker A: That is unbelievable.
[00:54:32] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I'm hip. I'm hip. I'm with the Times, Instagram, Twitter, MD Baseball. And you know, you can find some good content on there, clips from other episodes, you know, valuable recruiting posts. If you got any questions there, feel free to, to hit us up with a dm. And for, for those of you who are more interested in what me and, and Keith do with regards to why we have this podcast is we run a company called EMD Baseball and our goal is to help families navigate the recruiting process from a place of experience and knowledge. You know, 25 years coaching at the collegiate level, eight total as Division 1 players, done it at all different, different levels of college baseball, Division 1, 2 and 3, and got a lot of experience, a lot of knowledge that we're, we're trying to pass on to families and help them navigate this and find the, the best fit for their son. So if you've got any questions regarding that, please feel free to go to our website, www.emdbaseball.com. happy to connect there.
Otherwise, hope you tune in next time. Thanks, everybody.
